Alice Human Sacrifice
by distraught.hallelujah
Summary: In this intriguing take on the Vocaloid song "Alice Human Sacrifice", Len tells his sister Rin about Tweedledee and Tweedledum, twin Gothic Lolita girls who skillfully reveal the twisted tale of Underland. In the eerie, lonely halls of Underland, they tell the story of the Alices who came before. Rated T to be safe, for mild horror and thematic elements.
1. Introducing Underland

_Call it dreamland, if you will,_

_A place to be found underhill._

_Call it wonderland, if you must,_

_That's all it needs to earn your trust._

* * *

"Many people like to imagine a world where dreams come true. Perhaps it's greed, either because life isn't all that kind to them or because they are miserable despite life being grand. In any case, it's quite a natural human wish. However, there is only one place like that, and that is a place called Underland. I shall tell you this story with a warning, for it is a darkly woven tale not for the faint of heart.

Underland is, as one might be able to guess, a world underneath the 'upper world'. It is a place devoted to making all your dreams come true. The problem with dreams is that not all of them are nice, and some can be rashly or shallowly wished for. Sometimes, depending on how it is granted, the greatest wish can become the greatest curse. In Underland you must be careful what you wish for, because it will always, without fail, come true. I can tell you a bit about Underland, but if I should go into too much detail, please stop me, for Underland has a way of appearing even simply by mention or a passing whim, and many have lost themselves to it before they realize it.

Our tale begins in a forest where the trees are so thick that there is no sunlight above. Ahead of you, it looks like the trees almost bend together to form a tunnel leading into the darkness, with a pale foggy glow straight ahead, as though something invites you. You walk forward slowly, taking time with each step, and slowly your soft footsteps become loud, a tip-tap of heel on marble. As you keep walking, the forest floor becomes flat and even. The trees on either side of you become pillars. Very soon indeed, you find yourself in a vast hallway with great leaping archways, stone figures, and white and black checkerboard marble floors.

The hall around you is all black and white except for the huge vases of perfect, blood red roses, one on each side of the staircase that reaches up before you. At least, they had been blood red roses, but it seemed almost as though someone had tried to paint them white, and the roses now messily dripped white paint onto the floor below. I can't tell you why this was or who had done it, but it was both a pity and a sort of poetic artistic liberty at the same time. Behind you is only the rest of the hallway, which fades into an unwelcoming darkness, nothing more. Though there seems to be no light source, the whole black and white room gleams from within, light simply existing where light is needed.

One would naturally turn around slowly to see the hallway around them, and that's what you'd do, too. It seems like a dream through your vision, as though there was a pale glow cast about everything, and within moments it would be swallowed in the darkness that lies around its borders and you would wake up. Behind that dreamlike feeling, an ever-present sense of reality weighs heavy around your shoulders. There is the mildly dusty smell accompanied by the very faint scent of roses, and the air is cool against your skin. As you turn back to face the staircase, you notice what wasn't there before.

You are quite surprised to see two girls waiting there, having suddenly appeared at the bottom of the steps. They lean against each other, mirroring their poses, standing as still as statues. They must be twins, you think, for they match each other in every aspect, young girls that one would have guessed to be maybe eleven years young or so, skeletally thin, with lovely blond curls.

The dresses they wore were classic black Gothic Lolita with high necks, long sleeves, lace trimmings, and a full skirt with petticoats that stopped just below their knees, giving way to black knee socks and simple black shoes. Little black top hats balanced ever-so-perfectly on the top of their little heads, though the one on the left had hers tilting to the right while the one on the right had a hat that tilted to the left. As soon as your eyes register what they see, you realize they had already seen you. They looked at each other, then looked back at you and smiled together. The effect of their smiling together in such a way has startled even me before, so don't think the shivers that run down your spine make you special.

"You must be Alice," the first girl says. "We're Tweedledee…"

"… and Tweedledum," finishes the second.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," they say together.

You are quite shocked by the string of events and can't seem to bring yourself to speak. But that is apparently all right, as the twins seem to have everything figured out anyway. They seem, you note, like they know what they're doing, followed by a thought that would not leave the back of your head that whispered that they were much older than they looked. It is a feeling we share.

"It's quite all right," Tweedledee says. "We'll help you settle in just fine."

"But first," Tweedledum says, "now that the introductions are done and over with…"

"How about a story?" they ask sweetly.

You aren't sure if any story these odd people told would be something you'd want to listen to, but you are, after all, an open-minded person. And to be honest, in a place like this, you'd much rather listen to a child's story than imagine whatever else there was to do here.

"All right, then," you say. The girls smile. It feels like that was the right answer, which makes you wonder if there was a wrong one. There was no time to wonder too much, as you were raised as a good listener and these girls were beginning their story, so you settled down to listen like a good guest.

"You're not the only Alice, and definitely not the first, which is why we're not really surprised to see you," Tweedledee begins. "Though you've likely noticed that already. Er... how does it start again? Let's see now… once upon a time…"


	2. The First Alice

"The first Alice was quite the young lady, if I remember correctly. Her name was Miss Meiko. She had been raised in a strict, somewhat overbearing environment and, being a teenager, she felt it was time she... found herself. Her story as Alice began when she ran away from home, the naughty thing, and found herself quite lost. She was going to turn around and head back the way she came when, much to her surprise, a large white _rabbit_ appeared."

"Sound familiar?" Tweedledum interrupts with a wink, much to your annoyance, breaking the image you had begun to form. I had been annoyed when this first happened to me, so I don't blame you. "This white rabbit, quite big for a rabbit, went on to astound the girl by taking a pocket watch from his coat pocket, for he wore a very _dandy_ little coat. As though to confuse the poor girl further, and perhaps he quite meant to, he then proceeded to speak…"

"'I'm late,' he said," Tweedledee took over. "And around here," she continues, "it is considered a very bad thing to be late. Why, in the old times, they would cut out a man's eyes for being late. 'If you couldn't have seen the time with them, you shan't need them next time,' the queen would say. It was in much the same way thieves would lose their hands, and the gossips, their tongues. But then again, this isn't really about that, is it?"

"Of course not," Tweedledum agrees. "It's about our dear Meiko-chan. Then, without further ado, the rabbit, upon saying such, disappeared with a flick of his little white tail, bounding off into the forest. An odd sort of feeling came over Meiko then, and she felt compelled to follow the rabbit as best she could. You could call it fate, I suppose, that such a feeling overtook her. I mean, it's not normal, something like that. If she'd been a smart girl, she would have turned back while she could. Though her human size was hardly suited for quick travel through the forests, she chased the rabbit nevertheless."

"Quite useless, if you ask me," Tweedledee interrupts.

"Oh, quite," Tweedledum agrees. They smile at each other.

"The rabbit," Tweedledee continues, waving her hand in a dismissive way, "disappeared into a large hole at the roots of an even more remarkably large tree, what would be assumed to be a natural phenomenon, though quite suspiciously well-placed."

At this point you, much like I had, felt momentarily compelled to share with the young storytellers the facts of a rabbit's den and lifestyle, directly proportionate, of course, to the size of the rabbit itself, but it really doesn't seem like the time for that, so you remain silent.

"She found herself in much the same position as you," Tweedledum says thoughtfully. "And she quite enjoyed it, too. I suppose it seemed to her as though an entire world created itself just for her and her own whims. As I'm sure you can imagine, the years of rules that held her back escaping in one breath was, I'm sad to say, not very pretty. You should have seen her face. It was quite a mess, required a lot of cleaning up afterward."

"Luckily," Tweedledee continues, "the authorities arrived before _everyone_ had been slaughtered."

Both girls grin at this, the sort of grin that entices a number of shivers from your spine.

"There were plenty of survivors," Tweedledum murmurs. "But sadly for dear Meiko, the girl who so wanted her freedom, she was caught and held in the dark behind bars, her arms and legs chained to the floors, as she slowly starved, weak and powerless. A fitting end, I should think."

"For a mindless criminal, I should ask for nothing more," Tweedledee adds, shaking her head slowly. "Honestly, to do something like that is just unthinkable." They look back up at each other, their eyes meeting, and they both smile innocently once more.

"But that was only the first," they say together, turning back.


	3. The Second Alice

"The second Alice was a man, Monsieur Kaito," Tweedledum says, nodding to herself. "Quite a handsome fellow. Popular with the girls. He was a young songwriter and composer. He wrote arias and sonatas for an opera house in town that grew quickly in fame, thanks to him. It did end up becoming the time for him to write his best work, but he had no inspiration for it. The people he knew were all nobles and scoundrels at the same time, he had not lived a life interesting enough to extract musical feelings from, and so he took a long vacation on a search for inspiration."

"As you might imagine," Tweedledee continues, "Monsieur Kaito came across tales and rumors about a different world from yours. The tales all said a mix of different things. Some said it was a wonderland, some said it was a place of nightmares. It really depended on who you asked, back then. After all, there were no first-hand accounts, having been only one Alice. In any case, Monsieur Kaito thought this would be the perfect thing to draw his inspiration from."

"Therefore," Tweedledum took over in a sing-song sort of voice, "we'll say the place went to him, rather than him finding it first. The search absorbed his life very quickly. Many people were not sure if he still meant to write music, or if he was retiring altogether and becoming a poor shut-in with a terrible midlife crisis. It was when the owner of the opera house sent him a delicate inquiry that he was finally able to reach a breakthrough. He found little windows to this world in the ink he used to write with. As though greeting him like an egotistical young lady, it danced out of his reach. The music he wrote became clouded scribbles, and then finally nothing more than spilled ink."

"Every time he drew something, in the moment the ink sunk into the page, he would see something from this world," Tweedledee explains lightly. "Of course, he could have been imagining it all, but that's really something that only he could say. In his insanity, he wrote for hours, using his own blood as ink when he inevitably ran out, covering paper with it and only getting glimpses into the so-called wonderland. Weak from his blood loss and sick in the mind, Monsieur Kaito put a gun to his own head, and…"

"No, no" Tweedledum interrupts, shaking her hand as though to push away your quickly-growing horror. "You forget," she says, pinching her twin lightly. "Monsieur Kaito was at last able to reach his wonderland. After covering his room with ink, staining every cloth and piece of furniture black, it appeared around him, coming to him and tempting him. Or, for all we know, it was all in his mind that it appeared, but to him it was there, and he saw it. True to its name, it was a vast wonder, spread out over an entire world, with so many miracles in such a small place."

"Oh, yes," Tweedledee says, snapping her fingers. "I remember now. Forgive me for getting a bit ahead of myself. There were all manner of things one could draw inspiration from. There were mushrooms, one side of which makes you taller, and the other makes you smaller. There were people, some of which were the original and some of which had wandered into wonderland much like the Alices, but had adapted to the situation, much unlike the Alices, and had thrown away their memories of the other world."

"And the original people of the land," Tweedledum says, nodding, "were an assortment of oddities. There was a grinning cat, for instance, and a Mad Hatter."

"And a March Hare and a dormouse," Tweedledee adds.

"And a caterpillar, and a queen," Tweedledum finishes. "But the point of the matter is that there were many things to draw inspiration from. But perhaps it was too much for the young man, already mentally unstable, or perhaps it was another simple matter of fate, but it was then that Monsieur Kaito put a gun to his own head. It was most likely his attempt to open the world even more. Perhaps he hoped to find more secrets in that final spill of life, or a world under the world under. In any case, by staining the grass with his blood, he stained our world with his death, forever."

"And that was the second Alice to discover Underland," Tweedledee says, smiling.


	4. The Third Alice

"The third is my personal favorite," Tweedledee continues. "She was probably the most human of all of them, swallowed by greed and vanity long before she even began to think about our world. I will say quite honestly that humans are weak, so it came as no surprise to me when I learned this particular tale. While the first Alice came accidentally and the second was in a crazed panic, it was the third Alice, a beautiful young girlnamed Miku, who was suspiciously purposeful as she made her way into Underland. It was probably a devious plan thought out by the place itself. It does rather have a life of its own, after all. From what I remember of this tale, Miku didn't know anything about our world. It brought her here of its own accord, not of her desire."

"The lovely Miku was loved by all upon appearing here, of course," Tweedledum says. "She was sweet, kind, and beautiful, not to mention knowledgeable and wise. The people knew that, if anyone had a chance to become the Alice, she would be able to do it. But sadly, the Alices have never really had any luck. Her fame spread quickly, along with the love of people that quickly became _her_ people. The only problem was the Alice's rival, and that was the Red Queen."

"You know, of course, that the Red Queen is a lesser known character, not half as popular as the ever-charismatic Queen of Hearts," Tweedledee says sadly, shaking her head. "The Red Queen had been around for a long time, but suddenly the newcomer had gathered more fame and popularity than the Red Queen had ever had, and in such a short amount of time. What many people don't know about the Red Queen is that she is usually a very pleasant, motherly sort of lady, if a little jam-obsessed, but Miku was enough to turn the Red Queen's open-minded personality around a neat 180 degrees."

Tweedledum mimes decapitation, but you've grown to expect it by now, with the way the rest of the story had gone. It was a nice story, you thought, though perhaps a bit morbid. Creative nonetheless, though, isn't it? One of my favorites. But, I digress. "But not quite so impatient, perhaps," Tweedledum says. "Instead, the Red Queen attempted to first convince the third Alice to return to her own world. But as we've already mentioned, the third Alice was a vain young girl, and she quite liked the attention, perhaps a little too much for her own good. She refused to submit herself to the Red Queen's wishes and return, saying that it was below a queen such as herself to do so. Also as we've already mentioned, the Red Queen is usually quite nice, but this Alice was particularly troublesome."

"So she was cursed," Tweedledee says, nodding energetically. "Cursed so that her beauty would fade and her skin would crumble, and only then did she reveal her true colors. The truth was that she had been deceiving the people who idolized her. She was, in fact, a power-hungry fool quite like the ones who came before her, though she hid behind her kind mask. With her beauty gone and her cursed body falling apart, a wailing Miku despaired and escaped to the mountains, where some people say she still rules the group of people that still believe in her, though she lives with a terrible illness, constantly in fear of her decaying body."

"It never gets old, those stories," Tweedledum sighs. "They're always just as fun as the first time you tell them. Thoroughly entertaining through and through, do you not think so?" The question, you found, was directed at you, and you couldn't help but nod, however deep in thought you were about the stories you had just heard.

"Oh, but," Tweedledee says suddenly, interrupting your train of thought once more, as the talented though irritating storytellers tended to do, "we're forgetting once more."

"Oh?" Tweedledum asks. "What is it this time? It has been a long time since we told the stories, I'm afraid, so you'll have to forgive us for not remembering every word."

"No, no," Tweedledee says, shaking her head. She smiles slightly. "We're forgetting the fourth Alice, don't you remember?"

"Of course!" Tweedledum snaps her fingers. "How could I have forgotten?"


	5. The Fourth Alice

"Ah, the fourth Alice," Tweedledum says, smiling at the memory. "Now," she says, looking right at you, "the fourth Alice was twin children, who had heard from somewhere the tales of the past Alices. If you remember how you arrived here, then you'll find it was quite like that. They found their way through a forest and into the hallway, this very hallway, in fact."

"Upon their arrival," Tweedledee continues, "they walked and explored for what seemed like days. They never left each other's side. They led many, many fine adventures, and had the time of their lives. They met the Jabberwocky, dined with the Hatter…"

"Drank tea with the Hare…" Tweedledum muses.

"Ate jam with the Red Queen…" Tweedledee muses similarly.

"Played cards and chess like good children," Tweedledum finishes, "and were even invited to the palace, where they met the Queen of Hearts. But, you see, all dreams, good and bad, must eventually come to an end, which can be good or bad just as the dreams are, and even dreams in real life follow the same rules. So, of course, the fate of the children was the same as the other Alices."

"Well, not quite the same," Tweedledee corrects gently. "You see, the fourth Alice came closest to being the true Alice. They were pure-hearted and innocent. Underworld fell in love with them, along with the original characters, but not _too_ in love with them. It wasn't very long at all that they began to fit in with the world very well."

"Too well," Tweedledum says. "The twins fit in so well that they became originals themselves. Whenever the stories were told about that world, the twins were included. In some versions, there is no fourth Alice yet. Of course, the stories sometimes got messed up, but they did as they did, the essence stayed the same. The sad part about the twins was that they slowly forgot everything, their parents, their families, and even their real names, the poor dears. So you see; it really is a sad ending for all of the Alices, because no matter what shape or form they ended in, none of them will wake up, since they're lost in wonderland."

Tweedledee and Tweedledum shared a smile.

"But you know," Tweedledee says, "maybe you'll have better luck. You are the next Alice after all, are you not?"

"Of course," Tweedledum says, "by the fifth time, you'd think one of them ought to be just fine by the end. But, I do wonder how your story will go. We are the storytellers, after all. We've been here for as long as we can remember, telling this story, waiting for the next Alice to come along, so that we can add their story to the rest of them. But we _would_ like a happy ending, if possible."

"Of course," Tweedledee says, "there must be a happy ending."

But there's not always a happy ending. And as it would happen, that's when you realize it, your mind clicking together quite suddenly like an old dusty clock having just been repaired. _It wasn't just a story._ That's right, it was history. Honest-to-goodness Underworld history, from the first Alice to the fourth, and that's when you also realize that there's really only one set of twins you could possibly think of that became originals. And at that moment, you see the twins in front of you, in their black lacy dresses and little top hats with their dull golden curls and their skeletally thin bodies, and you realize that the eerily smiling young storytellers are in fact the fourth Alice.

And that's when everything begins to fall apart. And I do mean literally.

The ceiling above you peels back like old wallpaper. The painted roses begin to shed their paint, then shed their petals, then crumble altogether. The staircase behind the twins is falling out, starting with the top steps, disappearing into the darkness.

"Leaving already?" Tweedledum asks, sounding quite crestfallen.

"But we haven't even gotten to the good part yet," Tweedledee says, smiling at you.

You begin to run, scrambling to your feet. The black hallway stretches out before you. Where is the forest? You can't possibly be stuck here, can you? Your very mind begins to shudder in fear. You don't want to become like them. They must have been people too, from a long time ago, who became pieces of this place, just like the ghostly girls right behind you. In fact, they were walking closer. You couldn't seem to get away, no matter how quickly you ran. Though the black and white moved under your feet, the walls stayed where they were.

"The fifth Alice was a lot of fun," Tweedledum says, her eyes widening along with her smile. "The fifth Alice was the one that came here all alone, wishing for nothing, and tried to run away upon hearing what ghastly things went on in the place of dreams. We would never hurt the Alice, only follow the tale until it finishes, but Underland had other plans."

"But it's true," Tweedledee says, appearing next to her sister with the same wide eyes and grin.

"We make all sorts of dreams come true," they said together. "But not all of them are the good ones. That's why you need to be careful what you wish for."

"No!" you scream. "Please, someone help me!"

But there is no one, only the blackness and the quiet, calm footsteps behind you. It's too late. I warned you to stop before the story became too deep. I did tell you that Underland has a way of simply 'becoming' in one's mind. And, if you were thinking about it too deeply, it's probably there already. That's just how it works. Next time you should listen to what I say. I should know these sorts of things. I am Underland, after all.

Oh, and it's far too late to save them. They won't wake up from their dream.

They're lost in wonderland.


	6. Epilogue

Rin's face was pale with terror. "Geez, Len, where did you hear that?" she demanded, thin hands shaking. Her twin brother grinned, tossing a pillow her way.

"I made it up," he said. "It's good though, right? I really oughta be a writer."

"Good." Rin made a face. "It's freaky. How do you expect me to fall asleep now?"

"You shouldn't," Len replied, leaning in with a straight face. "If you do, Underland will get you." His eyebrows waggled meaningfully. Rin replied by hitting him smack in the face with the pillow he had helpfully provided her with moments before. As Len's face split in a huge grin, Rin made a face and stuck her tongue out.

"Honestly, what the world could do without annoying little brothers," Rin mumbled, hiding her face underneath her blanket.

"I'm barely little, it was just a difference of 20 minutes," Len complained, but Rin would hear nothing of it. She held onto the fact that she was the older sibling, even if it was only by 20 minutes.

"Leave the nightlight on," Rin demanded as Len turned to dim the lights. He made a face at her but obediently left the one light. Rin snuggled into her covers, eyes stuck on the ceiling shadows. She'd seen them every night, but somehow they seemed more haunting now. Ugh, little brothers… he _had_ to tell a creepy story just before bedtime. She closed her eyes with a sigh. Hopefully she'd still manage to get at least some sleep.

Outside the moon shined brightly, as if a gateway to another world. The shadow of a tree slowly stirred, then broke apart, small twin shadows approaching the shaded window. Two sets of skeletally thin hands eagerly gripped the windowpane, and wide white grins reflected the moonlight.

"Now, the fourth Alice was twin children…"


End file.
